Recreation vehicles such as jeeps, pickup trucks with campers, mobile homes, and the like are popular targets for theft. Such vehicles and their accessories are often very valuable and easy prey for a thief. Hunters and outdoorsmen who leave their vehicles for hours or days at a time on lonely roads are often surprised and shocked to find their vehicle gone when they return. Thefts occur not only in lonely, out-of-the-way places but also in crowded camping areas. No place is truly safe and no theft prevention device or procedure is totally effective. However, whatever devices or procedures can be used to make it harder and more time-consuming for a thief to steal the vehicle are well worth the cost and effort. Any additional obstacles the thief must overcome in order to steal the vehicle will tend to discourage him as time is one of a thief's major concerns.
The vast majority of vehicles have one battery source for their electrical systems; however, many vehicles, especially recreational vehicles, have dual battery sources. Most commercially available dual battery systems are not designed so that each battery can be selectively used to power either the vehicle or the accessories such as a camper. It appears that practically every owner of a vehicle-camper outfit is under the false impression that in the event that the vehicle's battery fails, the battery of the camper can be merely connected to the poles of the dead vehicle's battery with jumper cables to start the vehicle. In most commercially available vehicles, the end result of such a jumper connection is that not only is power not supplied to the vehicle's starter but the expensive charging system between the batteries is also completely burned out. Unknown to most, the vehicle's dead battery must be completely removed and the camper's battery substituted therefor in order to safely and successfully start the vehicle.
Several dual battery systems have been patented that can selectively operate the electrical system of the vehicle or the camper from either of the two batteries. These patented systems are fairly elaborate and none of them is known to be commercially available. Further, none of them teaches a way to easily and safely modify vehicle-camper outfits and the like that are commercially available in order to connect the camper's battery to the starter motor of the vehicle should the vehicle's battery fail. U.S. Pat. No. 3,763,415 to Ownby issued on Oct. 2, 1973, discloses a dual battery system with a switch 55 mounted inside the vehicle for selectively connecting battery B-1 or B-2 to the electrical system of either the vehicle or the accessory. Ownby's device is fairly elaborate and limited to his own system. To switch from one battery to the other requires the operation of switch 55, rectifiers 56 and 57, solenoid switch 58, and an indicator light 59 (see line 13-16 of column 4 of his patent). Ownby's teaching is not easily adapted to commercially available vehicle-camper outfits. U.S. Pat. No. 2,085,275 to Schmidt issued June 29, 1937, discloses a dual battery system which requires operation of a plurality of switches (switch 38, switch 50, and switch 27 with terminals 54 and 55 connected to terminals 29 and 49) to connect the auxiliary battery to the vehicle's starter system. U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,289 to Day issued Apr. 6, 1976 discloses a dual battery system which also requires operation of a plurality of switches 20, 34, and 48 to selectively connect either battery to the electrical system of the vehicle or the camper. Day's approach also involves the necessity of relays 14 and 46. U.S. Pat. No. 2,913,587 issued to Gebhard on Nov. 17, 1959, uses two batteries to start his vehicle. Gebhard's second battery is not connected to a second electrical system. Further, Gebhard's switch 104 offers no obstacle to a potential thief. U.S. Pat. No. 3,806,790 to Marshall issued Apr. 23, 1974, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,829,753 to Marshall issued Aug. 13, 1974 illustrate charger systems for vehicles with dual batteries. Such charger systems are very sensitive and are usually completely burned out by any attempt to join the two batteries with jumper cables should one of the batteries fail.
No prior approach combining theft prevention features and battery switching features is known to exist. The present invention offers such an approach in a low cost and simply constructed device that can be easily installed in commercially available vehicle-camper outfits.